Watch Live as a Skyscraper-Sized Asteroid Flies by Earth

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Watch Live as a Skyscraper-Sized Asteroid Flies by Earth

An enormous chunk of space rock will be whizzing past the Earth tonight and you can watch it live during a Slooh Space Camera show, starting at 4 p.m. Pacific/7 p.m. Eastern.

The close-flying asteroid is known as 2012 QG42 and was discovered only a couple weeks ago, on Aug. 26. It is estimated to be between 625 and 1,500 feet in diameter, roughly comparable in size to the Eiffel Tower, and will flash past the Earth at 25,000 mph.

QG42 will be coming in rather near to our home planet – at its closest approach it will be 1.7 million miles away or about seven times the distant between the Earth and moon. Because it was discovered so recently, the asteroid is classified as "potentially hazardous," meaning that it poses no risk of hitting the planet right now, but that its orbit could cross Earth's in the distant future. Both NASA and private groups have been working hard over the last decade to catalog all potentially dangerous asteroids, though clearly a few remain undetected.

In addition to a live view of the asteroid, the show will include Slooh's president Patrick Paolucci and Astronomy magazine columnist Bob Berman, as well as other guests.